Galaga (NES Classic Mini) & Galalga '88 (PC Engine Mini)

 

Man the stations, incoming aliens!

Played a bit of Galaga mostly because I really don't feel like starting up a 100 hours JRPG and Diddy Kong Racing DS has some infuriating moments, but I at least got it to work. So I spent 2-3 days of my vacation to check how many games I have and also to find how many copies there is and how many I've finished. Probably shouldn't have done that since it gave me some horrendous back pains so I hardly could get out of bed the next day and was forced to do stretching excercises for a couple of days after that. 

But now I know that I have two versions of this game, this one on the NES Classic Mini and the other on PC Engine. Played the NES one first and made it to stage 8 after a couple of tries, but no further than that. I don't expect more than that either really. Basic colours  and not a lot of them. Galaga '88 on the other hand, a real step up in graphics with more colours and a background beyond the blackness of space. Even your spaceship has more than just black and white. On the other hand it makes it harder since a planet or space-station happens to make the spacecraft you pilot blend in the background together with the enemies bullets. So maybe it wasn't that strange that I only reached level 5 on that... or just that I'm bad at it. 

Ys Book I and II (PC Engine Core Grafx mini)

So played this game again as the news of Ys IX coming to the west so getting a bit of a reminder of the series. It's also been 6 years so thought it was a good amount of time in between. I recall liking it and reading about it confirms that I did. Although, replaying it showed some strange things. How did I finish it last time? It's hard at times and I easily got lost in the different mazes strewn around the game. The ending area I don't wanna talk about. Would have been nice with a map other than from the internet. It has been remade a couple of times, even for the DS, but sadly ain't that easy to get a hold off. 

Still great music and graphics. Sound effects were interesting since the getting item sounds a bit like the same sound from Metroid. Also, the audio mixing is not the best, but this time I actually cranked up the sound for the final battle so I at least heard what he said. Speaking of the final battle... who the hell thought that putting the necessary level to beat the final boss was the maximun 62? I was level 60 and got trounced every time, but level grinding for a couple of hours made it a cake walk. That's one of the most frustrating parts about the games. Sure, you can use certain items and strategies for some, but mostly there is a hidden level cap that is recommended to have to get past it. People talked about the end of Book 1, but that was never a problem.

And another thing... it's noticeable that there is 2 games stuck together since the mechanics change after entering the next one. Rings went to the inventory instead of the equipment which is a shame since you gotta equip the Goddess ring in the end, making you unable you to use any healing item at the final battle (hadn't I used the golden drop during the battle of Dalles it might not have been that much of a problem). And I hate the fact you can't change items or equipment during boss battles. 

Now, it sounds like I'm bashing the game, and I do. but there is still moments in the game that makes it a joy to play. I like the story. The gameplay is fun and the exploration is great, still sad about several point of no returns. 

Alien Crush (PC Engine Core Grafx mini)

Hello there.

Well, gotta play through all these games, cause what is otherwise the point getting them? Besides looking good as dust-collectors on my shelfs that is? Earliest released game on the console apparently

and it's a... pin-ball game. And not like the Sonic one on the Sega Mega Drive that appears to be story-based and such, no, you got one board with the choice of slow or fast ball and which background music you want out of two. So, try to the beat the high score I guess. It's greatest strenght is the design since it's obviously inspired by H.R. Geiger and especially the movie Alien. I can see the face-huggers. 

Fun for a couple of minutes and it looks good. The lunar song is great, but I wouldn't say it's something I would get out of my way to get. The space cadet pin-ball that came on Windows XP would be as fun, especially since I have more nostalgia for that one since me and my best friends spent one math lesson in school playing that game and taking turns to get the highest score. Still, it's Halloween week as the release of this so great game to write about it. And just maybe be another filler game to space out all the RPG:s.

PC Engine Core Grafx Mini

It has finally arrived!

Finally got it, supposed to get out back in march, but thanks to the global pandemic it was obviously postponed. As a bonus it came right before I went on summer vacation. I've mostly seen people talking about the American release (since most Youtubers I watch are Americans), the TurboGrafx-16 mini, and I gotta be honest, it looks bad. I get why they changed the colours from the original PC Engine, but how could they make it so big and bulky? At least Europe got the Amazon black and blue. Funny enough the smallest of the mini consoles I have, but the most games on it... technically. It sports 57 games on the back-cover, but the thing is that some of them are the same game, but both a japanese and an english version. And some of the Japanese-only games are with japanese text and sound... meaning that I can't actually play them. The two games most effected are Snatcher and a game called Necromancer. Both very text heavy so that makes it rather impossible to play them. The german voice for Castlevania: Rondo of Blood isn't a problem since I know enough and it's just the intro.

Now, some information that I tried to find was how many controllers are there in the package? Just one, you were supposed to buy at least one more to get the most out of the console. And if you wanted to go all in you could get the multitap and buy three more so that five people could play games like Bomberman and Dungeon Explorer. Now, the pandemic shut down that idea as well so I have just the one. Although I thought that it's basically a NES-controller with some added turbo-configuration I though I would try some of the other controllers I had laying around. Now, I only got the Sega Mega Drive Mini controllers with USB-connections and they didn't work. So when the logistics of Konami is solved I will probably pay for 4 more controllers and a multitap. Gotta need some spare at least. The d-pad is a bit harder than the NES mini, but overall works like normal. Greath lenght on the cable so no need for extensions.

Like the Sega Mega Drive mini you can get to the game menu from the games, but this time holding both the Select and Start button... or Select and Run button. Save stats goes a long way and you can choose different backgrounds. They also decided to divide up the games for the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx-16 (I assume the European releases were rather insignificant or that the PAL format really messes with the games) so you gotta switch them around to get to the games. Interesting choice and since they have doubles I get why they did that. They also play little animations while starting up the games, reflecting if it was a huecard (the cartridge the first games come on) or a CD-ROM game. 

Speaking of the games, I've got a couple of them before on Wii and Wii U (and the Switch arcade archives). As mentioned, some games that are completely in Japanese I can't play if I wouldn't do something drastically like putting in some translation patch (which I won't do since I'm not that technical). Other games don't need it, Castlevania or some of the shooter games since the words don't affect how you play the game. I started up snatcher and the visuals and music are fantastic but a lot of text and words in Japanese and as the game starts... you gotta chose words to progress and I can't read it. And it is pretty much a visual novel I gather? Might just youtube someone playing the Sega CD version. You got a lot of shooters like Salamander (the arcade original of Life Force, which I gotten 7 times... and some times twice on the same console). With this I might finally finish Neutopia and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, but since it's the Summer (as of writing) I might play Ys 1 & 2 again, especially since I just learnt that Ys IX is coming next year.

Playing some of the games and looking at it... probably had I not gotten the games on Wii and Wii U it would probably be the best way to experience these games for someone who haven't played the games. It was a bit more pricey, but I think it's worth it. This is at the moment also the last mini console I will get unless they release a Nintendo 64 mini (I'm not touching the Playstation mini). 

Ys Book 1 & 2

Another game I got my hand on was Ys book 1 & 2 for the TurboGrafx-16, an action RPG were the basic form of attack is... running into enemies. An odd form of attack I believe was used in earlier games since there wasn't enough graphic power to show the sword attack or so. With a bit of imagination your character, Adol, either fences around the enemy to deliver the deadly strike with his blade or he rams the enemy head on caring nothing for his well-being to save... whoever needs saving. The story is fairly simple, you arrive at this new continent were there once stood a powerful civilization named Ys (pronounced ease or something like that) were dark forces gathers so you must stop this darkness and find the clues for what happened. Fairly standard atlantian story-telling, sadly the game suffers a bit for being two games in one. This separates places and characters making it feel very restricted in terms of exploring as well as having problem creating characters that are memorable past their special scene. It still worked as a story, just feeling disjointed after clearing the first half.

Graphically and musically the game have very nice anime cut-scenes and sprites as well as a decent orchestrated score as well as voice acting. Sad part is that in some places the voices hard to hear and there is no text so you must listen really hard to know who spoke and whatever happened to the plot. All in all a decent game that has an interesting mythos, sadly the other parts wasn't released on the Virtual Console so hopefully they get released this time around, although with the different releases and such I have a hard time seeing it. The fun thing is that with this game and Castlevania: Rondo of Blood I really start to see the TG-16 in a very good light, although that could just be I'm only touching the best of the consoles library.